What is a Waste Management Plan?
A waste management plan is a strategy that covers the ways a business stores, disposes of, and reduces the garbage it produces. It provides a clear overview of all the waste streams generated, how they’re handled, who is responsible for each part of the process, and the costs involved.
Good waste management plans provide an overall picture of the trash your business produces and what happens to it. This helps ensure everything is managed safely and responsibly, reduces the environmental impact of your company’s waste, and cuts costs associated with business waste management. Every organization should have one in place.
Having a clear strategy written down with a waste management plan is essential for businesses of any size and industry across the US. Discover everything you need to know about what a waste management plan is, why it’s important your business has one, and how to write one.
Why do I need a waste
management business plan?
Every business needs a waste management plan to understand the types and amount of trash they produce and what happens to it all. Having this information and a strategy to deal with it written down helps highlight any problems and ensure everyone knows their responsibilities from the point of garbage production to disposal.
This should cover waste storage, collection, transportation, processing, recycling, and disposal. A good waste management business plan helps identify ways to reduce trash, minimize your environmental impact, and uphold your corporate and social responsibility. This is a key part of any sustainability goals.
A waste management business plan isn’t a legal requirement, but it’s advisable to have one for safety. Industrial and manufacturing solid and hazardous waste are regulated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Having a waste management plan can help your business comply with the RCRA and provide proof if an issue arises.
A company waste management plan helps:
- Reduce waste – it details the types and volumes of trash your business generates, which highlights areas to focus on reduction.
- Recycle more trash – information from a business waste management plan can be used to spot recycling opportunities and ensure waste segregation.
- Save money on waste management – an overview of your waste management costs helps identify opportunities to trim your spending.
- Protect your business – comply with regulatory obligations and have proof with an effective waste management plan.
- Uphold health and safety standards – a plan should streamline your management to ensure regular removals of trash and minimize risks of garbage piling up, dumpsters overflowing, and hazards such as trips and falls.
Importance of a construction
waste management plan
Every business should have a waste management plan in place, but it’s especially important for construction sites and projects. This is because they can create lots of waste that’s often bulky and hard to dispose of, with plenty unfortunately ending up in landfill. A site waste management plan (SWP) helps organize and reduce construction waste.
Rubble, concrete, bricks, and other construction and demolition waste materials require special attention. A construction waste management plan records all the waste materials and byproducts produced and removed from a jobsite. This helps determine the volumes of each stream and ways to ensure as much as possible is reused, recovered, and recycled rather than going to landfill.
Effective construction waste management plans help achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. This sustainability rating system is important for new construction projects and remodels, which is required by some municipalities and big corporations. Some local regulations also require a site waste management plan to operate legally.
Even if they don’t, a construction waste management plan helps your organization minimize its waste production, control the costs closely, and work sustainably. Drawing up a strategy before work starts reduces safety risks to protect workers as well.
Waste management plan template
An easy way to get started improving your strategy for commercial trash is to start with a waste management plan template. This covers the basics you should include in a plan, which you can then expand, build on, and tailor to meet the specific needs of your business.
As a simple guide and starting point, a waste management plan template should include as a minimum:
- A description of all the waste materials produced, including whether any are hazardous
- An estimated volume for each type of trash your business produces
- Measurement methods for the volume of each waste type (number/size of dumpsters, tons, or pounds)
- Storage methods for every garbage type, such as in dumpsters, bags, or other containers and where these will be located (as well as accessibility, including any locks on the dumpsters, doors, or gates to reach them)
- Waste collection information – the times and dates of pickups, and who is responsible for collecting the waste
- Disposal methods for each trash type, such as recycling, incineration, reuse, recovery, and landfill
- Costs of waste management for your business (covering storage, collection, disposal, and other waste management costs)
How to write a waste
management plan
Writing a waste management plan is important for any new or existing company. Ideally, you should have one in place before you open, but if you don’t, then it’s not too late. Decide who is responsible for overseeing waste management within your business if it’s not already determined. It should be their job to write or put together a waste management plan.
These are the main steps to write a waste management plan:
- Conduct a waste audit – understand the types and volume of each waste material your business produces on a daily, weekly, and fortnightly basis. Review all areas of the company and record this information as it’s essential to create an effective strategy.
- Set sustainable targets – using data about your commercial trash, determine some achievable targets to reduce waste for each stream. These must be specific to each waste material and explain how they will be achieved and over what time frame. Aiming for zero landfill by improving recycling rates is a common goal.
- Outline waste segregation – put in place clear guidelines to separate waste materials with information about specific dumpsters (including their sizes, number, and locations) for each stream. This covers the waste storage process for your business.
- Determine disposal methods – identify sustainable disposal options for all waste, such as recycling, composting, and incineration (for clinical and hazardous waste). This may help reduce how much waste is sent to landfills and boost recycling rates.
- Include responsibilities – list who is responsible for all elements of waste management within your organization. This should include those responsible for the planning, moving dumpsters where required, cost control, and the third party that collects and disposes of your business waste.
- Cover the collection schedule – add information about specific commercial waste collection schedules for your business, including the days and times (if available) for waste removal.
- Regularly review your plan – businesses grow and adapt over time, so it’s important you regularly review your site waste management plan and even get an expert to assess it and identify any areas for improvement.
Create a waste management plan
with Business Waste
Want some help writing a waste management plan for your business? One of our experts can assist and work to develop an effective strategy for your commercial waste. This involves assessing your current set-up with a waste audit, advising on ways to reduce trash, and determining cost-effective options.
If you’ve got a plan already and just want a price for business waste collection, then we can help with that too. Get a free quote for waste collection today. Simply tell us the types and amount of trash you produce, how often you want it collected, and your location for a bespoke quote – call 888 584 2118 or contact us online.
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